Winter Sleep wins Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival

Cannes:Winter Sleep, a film by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, has been named the winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or award at the 67th annual Cannes Film Festival.

It is only the second film by a Turkish director to win the festival's highest honour, after Yilmaz Guney and Serif Goren's The Way (1982).

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan poses with the Palme d'Or award for the film Winter Sleep at Cannes. AP

The film is a sprawling, character-rich portrait of a self-absorbed Anatolian hotelier and his uneasy relationships with those around him. The Grand Prix, the festival's second-place honour, was presented to 'The Wonders', Italian director Alice Rohrwacher's semi-autobiographical drama about a family of beekeepers struggling to preserve their way of life in central Italy.

Julianne Moore won the best actress prize for 'Maps to the Stars', while 'Mr Turner' star Timothy Spall was named best actor.

"This is a great surprise for me," Ceylan said when he took the stage, noting that it was perhaps a fitting choice in a year that marked the 100th anniversary of Turkish cinema.

Bennett Miller won the best director honour for his film 'Foxcatcher' starring Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, and Steve Carell.

Scoring big on his first trip to one of the major European film festivals, Miller was a popular choice for directing honours for 'Foxcatcher', his tense, well-acted crime drama about the complex psychological triangle that ensnared Olympic wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz (played by Tatum and Ruffalo) and the Pennsylvania millionaire John du Pont (Carell).

"This is quite affirming, and I am very grateful," Miller said in his speech. Moore drew the actress prize for her ferocious turn as a washed-up Hollywood star in David Cronenberg's Tinseltown satire 'Maps to the Stars'. With Moore not present at the ceremony, the film's writer, Bruce Wagner, accepted the award on her behalf.

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